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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

2005


(Photos: Above, Christmas Dinner at Sienna's and below, ....with Alexander McCall-Smith in the outback! Just look at the places we are prepared to go to .... to meet our favourite authors! Okay .... okay :) We actually sent this picture to Alexander McCall-Smith .... who was quick to pick up that the background had been cleverly doctered, thanks to Ant!!)

Feb 2005
Birth of Venus (Sarah Dunant) An
Set in 15th Century Florence. A wonderful blend of fact and fiction! We also looked at some lovely pictures from different books about Italy. Are we saving money ..... maybe a few dollars a week so that we can all go to Italy in 10 years time?
Mar

Mao's Last Dancer (Li Cunxin) De
(Authors name is pronounced Li Schwin Sing!) This is his wonderful biography! We had so much to talk about at this meeting.
His website: http://www.licunxin.com/
Apr

Killing Me Softly (Nicci French) He
This is written by the husband and wife team .... Nicci, the wife and French, the husband. We read this with hairs standing on ends ..... and curled toes! Enjoyed by all..... This was a book that was hard to put down!
Link to Nicci French website:
http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/niccifrench/killingmesoftly.html
May

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Mark Haddon) Ca
This book has won many awards. The narrator is a 15 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome. Interesting to see life from his point of view. It generated quite a bit of discussion.
http://www.markhaddon.com/
Jun
Elegance (Kathleen Tessaro) Da
This was a delightful read. Elegance is about finding your own way to live life and be happy.
Jul

Silk (Alessandro Baricco) Sa
A little book (200 pgs) that is beautifully written. We found out later that it was made into a movie. Set in the mid 17th century, it is about a French man who journeys to Japan to look for silkworms.
Aug
When I Lived in Modern Times (Grant) Je
This is set in the mid 1940's in Palestine. We had never read anything about Palestine and this was very interesting. It made us think about the Jewish community, national identity, terrorism and so much more.
Sept

The Kite Runner (Khaled Husseini) Be
Set in Afghanistan, this book generated heaps of discussion. We also looked at pictures of Afghanistan ...... pictures of places mentioned in the book ...... pictures from the past and pictures of Afghanistan today. This is the author's website:
http://www.khaledhosseini.com/
An audio of the interview with the author through BBC's World Book Club is found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/worldservice/meta/dps/2008/10/081013_wbchosseini?size=au&bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1
Oct

Almost French (Sarah Turnbull) Ant
This is an entertaining read. We laughted a lot about parts of this book which is more in the travel/biography category.
Nov

A Brick Lane (Monica Ali) Ju
Set in England, this is about love, cultural differences and human spirit.
Dec
Christmas dinner at Sienna's

Craig Silvey-Rhubarb
This was chosen for the One Book event early this year. Some of us went to this event. It was good to meet Craig Silvey. We could feel the sights and sounds of Freo in this book. Recommended!

Jodi Picoult
Some of us went to see Jodi Picoult this year. (Can somebody expand?)



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